Me Made Monday – Cape Edition

One of my goals for 2017 was to create a wardrobe of mostly handmade clothing and I’ve been working this month on trimming down my closet (one donation bag at a time…) of all the RTW items that I just don’t wear.

These me made posts will challenge me to wear a completely handmade outfit at least one day a week. Most days of the week I am wearing at least one handmade thing, but this really challenges me to build up my basics me made items.

Without further ado, here’s Me Made Monday – Cape Edition!

I’m linking up today with Allie from Allie J. as part of her social sew New Year, New Wardrobe Social Sew!

I signed up for the Milano Cape Class at Stitch Sew Shop and man, this cape has been a labor of love. It’s actually not 100% done, but it’s wearable and I need 150% concentration to complete the last top stitching which I don’t currently have so for now it’s done!

The Milano Cape is gorgeous when completed, but definitely not something I would have normally gravitated towards. I’m really glad I decided to try it though. I learned a lot through the process – welt pockets, Hong Kong seams (and more relevant, how not to do them), sewing on buttons and placing button holes and maneuvering sewing with a whole lot of fabric!

In looking at the instructions, this cape seemed very straight forward, but I think it might have been geared for someone who knew what they were doing a little bit beyond my knowledge base. I was glad I took it as a class, because I think I would have been totally confused without it.

I used a blue-ish green wool coating from Stitch Sew Shop and gorgeous vintage buttons and Liberty Tana Lawn for the facing and pocket bags.

So much work putting in those buttons and button holes and making sure they lined up!

I had big dreams to use Hong Kong seams but decided to trust my “sewing brain” instead of ….google….so I ended up with Liberty bias bound seems with the seams together instead of apart. We’ll call it a creative feature? #oops….